What Am I?

A king who prided himself upon his intellect once made an official declaration, offering his daughters hand to anyone who could devise a riddle which he could not solve.

 

Many came with seemingly impossible riddles but the king solved every one of them.

 

Eventually, however, a strange young man arrived at the palace and asked the king this peculiar riddle –

 

I am red, I am green;

I am square, I am circular;

I have three legs; sometimes two or even one;

I am this and I am that and neither.

What am I?

 

 

The king was flabbergasted by this? The clues didn’t seem to point to anything but the man said to the king.

 

“Don’t worry. There are lots more clues to the riddle. Think about that and, if you still can’t solve the riddle, I’ll tell you some more tomorrow”.

 

And so the King stayed up all night thinking about the riddle but he still could not think of the answer and so, the next morning, he summoned the man into his room again.

 

“You said there were more clues, tell me them”, said the king.

 

And so the man gave the king more clues,

 

I can live in the sea; I also live in the air;

I can be seen but can also be invisible;

sometimes I sing; sometimes I roar but sometimes have no voice;

I am one but I am a many things.

What am I?

 

The kings eyes darted about from side to side as, frantically, he tried to think of the riddles solution but the clues just didn’t seem to fit together to indicate anything.

 

“Don’t worry, your majesty”, said the man, “I have lots more clues that are part of this riddle. Think about it some more and, if you haven’t solved it, I’ll tell you some more tomorrow”.

 

And so the king stayed up another night trying to think of the solution; he thought about the first set of clues:

 

I am red, I am green;

I am square, I am circular;

I have three legs; sometimes two or even one;

I am this and I am that and neither.

What am I?

Then he thought about the second set of clues:

 

I can live in the sea; I also live in the air;

I can be seen but can also be invisible;

sometimes I sing; sometimes I roar but sometimes have no voice;

I am one but I am many things.

What am I?

 

But, even together, the clues did not seem to indicate any particular thing.

 

And so the next day the king called the young man into his room and said, “You said there were more clues to the riddle. Tell me those. If I still cannot solve it then I will admit defeat and you may marry my daughter”.

 

So the man said,

 

I crawl, I fly, I swim, I walk;

sometimes I do not move at all;

I am hot as fire and cold as ice;

I am small and I am gigantic.

what am I?

 

The king struggled again to make sense of the riddle, examining all the clues in turn and thinking about all the clues he had been given on the previous days but still he could not think of what the answer could be.

 

“Alright”, he said, “I give in. Tell me the answer”.

 

“Something that can be anything”, said the man.

 

The king stared at him blankly, stupefied; then his blank expression turned to one of anger,

 

“What? Something that can be anything?”, yelled the king, “That’s not a proper riddle. A proper riddle has to have something in particular as its answer. Say the answer is something that can be anything and you can give any clue you want. That’s the stupidest riddle I have ever heard”.

 

“Well perhaps”, said the man, “But you couldn’t solve it”.

 

“It doesn’t matter”, said the King, “It’s a stupid riddle and because you have wasted my time with that stupid riddle I shall not allow you to marry my daughter, in fact I shall have you arrested and thrown in my dungeons”.

 

Then the king called his guards and had them arrest the man but, as he was being dragged away, the man, looking back over his shoulder, warned the king, “You will be sorry that you broke your promise to me, your majesty”.

 

Hearing this, the king just scoffed.

 

But then that night, a snake slithered into the kings bed chamber; then, turning into a spider, it crawled onto his bed then turning into a lion it roared and woke the king.

 

Startled, the king looked at the lion but then, as he did he saw the lion change into a monkey dressed in a kings robes with a crown upon its head.

 

“I warned you that you would regret breaking your promise”, said the monkey.

 

“What are you?”, asked the king, terrified and awestruck.

 

“I told you already”, said the monkey, “Something that can be anything”.

 

Then the monkey turned back into a snake, a venomous cobra and struck the king dead before, turning into a fly, it buzzed out of the kings chambers.